Gold’s surge to record highs is spilling over into crypto markets, lifting tokenized versions of the precious metal that are typically favored during periods of macro uncertainty.

Tether Gold (XAUT), the largest gold-backed token by market capitalization, climbed to a record high of $4,425, while Pax Gold (PAXG) and Kinesis Gold (KAU) also advanced. The gains pushed the combined market value of gold-backed tokens to roughly $4.38 billion.

“The message is clear: investors are still hedging macro uncertainty rather than leaning aggressively into risk,” said Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, in an email. “That divergence continues to cap enthusiasm for crypto, even as liquidity conditions improve.”

Bitcoin — often described by proponents as “digital gold” — rose to around $89,800 as the U.S. dollar weakened and technology stocks helped lift Asian equity markets. Shares of heavyweight chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung Electronics advanced, easing concerns over an artificial intelligence bubble. Futures tied to the S&P 500 gained about 0.3%, pointing to a firmer U.S. open.

Despite the uptick, a sustained crypto recovery may depend on a return of institutional demand, which appears to have softened. Digital asset investment products posted net outflows of $952 million last week — the first weekly outflow in four weeks — according to CoinShares data.

Derivatives snapshot

Market stability has yet to spark renewed risk appetite in derivatives markets. Futures positioning remains mixed, with bitcoin, ether, HYPE and BNB seeing modest increases in open interest over the past 24 hours, while other major tokens recorded outflows.

Leveraged long positions in bitcoin continue to rise on Bitfinex — a pattern that has historically coincided with extended bear markets. Meanwhile, BTC’s 30-day implied volatility is holding near 45%, signaling subdued trading activity as the year draws to a close. Ether’s 30-day implied volatility slipped to 70%, its lowest level since Oct. 9.

On the CME, open interest in bitcoin futures fell below 120,000 BTC for the first time since early 2024, pointing to waning institutional participation. In perpetual futures markets, BCH, SHIB, WLFI and TON are showing negative funding rates, indicating a bias toward short positions, while funding for major tokens remains slightly positive.

Options activity on Deribit presents a mixed picture. Block trades included both bitcoin call and put spreads, while ether traders focused on calendar spreads. Overall, BTC and ETH puts continue to trade at a premium to calls, though the downside bias has eased modestly since Friday.

Token talk

Curve DAO has rejected a proposal to allocate 17.45 million CRV tokens — worth about $6.3 million — to Swiss Stake AG, a firm led by Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov that oversees core protocol development.

The proposal, intended to fund infrastructure, security and development work for Swiss Stake’s 25-person team, failed with 54.46% voting against and 45.54% in favor. Wallets associated with Yearn Finance and Convex Finance accounted for nearly 90% of the opposing votes, according to on-chain data.

Despite the rejection, CRV rose roughly 4% over the past 24 hours, outperforming the broader market. The CoinDesk 20 index gained 0.35% over the same period.

Some DAO members cited concerns over transparency, particularly around reporting of prior expenditures. “The DAO deserves an itemized and transparent list of expenses and shouldn’t be expected to authorize further funding until that standard is met,” one member wrote.